Tom Cruise's transformation into an 'heroic' Nazi

And dressed in uniform, with an eyepatch and a steely gaze, Tom Cruise looks suitably sinister.

But far from taking on the role of a bad guy, this is the Hollywood actor as Count Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg - the 'Good Nazi' who tried to blow up Hitler.

Cruise has gone to extraordinary lengths to portray the aristocratic army officer who placed a bomb under the table where the Fuhrer was chairing a meeting on July 20, 1944 - 63 years ago today.

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Several of the Nazi leader's aides were killed but Hitler escaped with minor injuries because the bomb was placed behind a solid oak leg of the table, which took some of the force of the blast.

Stauffenberg was arrested - along with some 7,000 coconspirators - and shot by firing squad while declaring: 'Long live Germany!'

Filming of the £80million movie about the plot, which has become something of an obsession for Cruise, begins in Berlin today after pre-production shots were taken.

It is provisionally entitled Valkyrie, after the codename for the operation under which the plotters hoped to assume power after Hitler's death.

Cruise is pictured wearing an exact replica of Stauffenberg's uniform on his last day alive, down to the medals, the braiding and the gold thread in the eagle sewn on to his chest.

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The 45-year-old Top Gun star has practised for the part by parading in the uniform in a suite of the Regent Hotel in Berlin, which he has hired for the duration of filming. With history books for reference points, he studied the way in which Stauffenberg, who lost an eye and three fingers fighting for the Third Reich in Africa and Russia, carried himself.

"I have admired him as a hero and I will play him as a hero," said Cruise.

An insider on the set added: "The project means so much to Tom. This is one Nazi's uniform he can wear with pride."

Stauffenberg's family are, however, less enthusiastic about the project.

Some relatives of the highly-decorated officer have criticised the casting, fearing that Cruise - as a disciple of the controversial Church of Scientology - will "inject" the cult's propaganda into the film.

In an interview for the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, Stauffenberg's eldest son, Berthold, said: "He should leave my father alone. He should go climb a mountain or go surfing in the Caribbean. I don't give a hoot as long as he keeps out of it."